Moishes: More than memories

Moishes looks back on 75 years and one good poker hand

“I think we can even look forward to another 75 years,” says Lenny Lighter, left, with his brother Larry.

Photograph by: Dario Ayala
, The Gazette

MONTREAL - Business wasn’t exactly booming when he took over the restaurant. First day, his total revenues were all of $34.15. It got even worse a little more than a week later, when the place grossed a paltry $3.80 for the day. Moishe Lighter was suddenly having second thoughts about the steak house he just won from his boss in a poker game.

But the former busboy hung in, and against all odds, Moishes celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, making it by far the city’s oldest fine-dining eatery operating out of the same spot.

Lighter, a poor Romanian immigrant, hadn’t initially contemplated running a steak house while making ends meet as a busboy and then a waiter at Saffrin’s. He was more interested in gambling, but fate works in strange ways and so do poker bets.

Originally known as The Romanian Paradise to reflect the owner’s roots, it became known as Moishe’s in the early 1940s and then Moishes in the 1970s to reflect sign laws in this province. Moishe Lighter passed away 27 years ago and passed on the business to his sons Lenny and Larry, who continue to operate it.

“I thought the story about the poker game was more myth than anything, but then a year ago this family comes in and brings all these vintage photos of the place and tells me the story about the bet was, in fact, true,” says Lenny Lighter, 60, who, with his shaved pate, could pass for actor Stanley Tucci. “They told me their grandfather was a notorious gambler, creating all kinds of havoc in his family. And they still can’t believe he lost the place on a bet.”

Not to suggest, but for the poker hand Saffrin was dealt, his restaurant would have made it this long.

Moishes’s success is hardly an accident. It’s not only about the location in the heart of the Main. Apart from serving what many culinary experts believe to be the finest steaks in town, Moishes has not taken its iconic legacy for granted. Unlike most of this city’s long-gone grand establishments that lost their way, Moishes has kept pace with changing times and tastes. It has undergone several makeovers, which both reflect its history with its tin ceiling and red-brick walls and still give it a contemporary urban look with some modern art and a giant back-lit map of the city on one wall. It has instituted a $25 two-course special between 9 p.m. and midnight Thursdays to Saturdays, which has drawn a younger demographic and which always packs the place’s 200 seats. It has upgraded its wine list — presented to patrons on an iPad — to one of the city’s best. But it has hung on to its superb coterie of veteran waiters, some of whom have been there almost 50 years and who can remember when the sizzling steaks were served on wooden platters. Simply put, Moishes remains a reliable comfort zone for its devotees.

“Seventy-five years is an awfully long time for a restaurant, but I have to say we’re as strong as we’ve ever been. I think we can even look forward to another 75 years — if I last that long,” cracks Lenny, a fitness buff who just could be around at the age of 135.

Lenny has been at Moishes for 40 years, but he got off to a rough start. He had been out of the city for a period and out of touch with local happenings. He was working at the front cash when he began. Those were the days before cellphones, when calls would come for customers and when the fellow at the cash would page the patron to the phone.

It just so happened that while Lenny was on duty, a call came for a renowned leader of the local underworld. So when Lenny’s voice boomed out over the restaurant “Calling Mr. (underworld boss),” an eerie silence took hold of the restaurant. No more clattering of dishes and glasses. “I had no idea what was going on or who the guy was,” Lenny recalls. “Then he comes lumbering up from the back of the restaurant and gives me such a scowling look, suggesting he’s not so happy about being paged. And suddenly I get an uneasy feeling that my days in this business might be short-lived.”

Clearly not. And suffice to say that Moishes’s customers come from all walks. There is nary a major celeb, entrepreneur (legit or rogue) or politico — save for P.M. Harper — who hasn’t feasted on Moishes’s famed coleslaw and dill pickles and then chowed down on a steak.

“This wasn’t something I wanted to do when I was younger,” Lenny says. “I more fell into it and then it grew on me. But the longer I’m here, the better I get at it and the more I appreciate how life has unfolded for me. The challenge is for us to pay tribute to our past and yet to stay relevant both today and tomorrow. We couldn’t survive on tradition and nostalgia alone.”

At one point, the fear was that Moishes’s client base would be largely senior. But with the renovations and menu specials, 30 per cent of business is generated from thirtysomethings from all the city’s cultural communities.

“It’s heartwarming to see young people from everywhere mixing so well,” Lenny says. “It made me realize that our brand was still very much alive in the city.”

He also acknowledges that success has come out of growing pains. In the late ’90s, the attempt to launch a Moishes in Toronto failed.

“That was a tough pill to swallow,” he says. “We were doing well there, but we built a massive place and invested a lot of money. We probably bit off more than we could chew. But we live and we learn.”

And prosper. So to celebrate its 75th birthday, Moishes will be donating $75,000 to the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Fondation Hôpital Sainte-Justine. Also, a Moishes 75 baseball cap has been created and proceeds from its sales will also go to the hospital foundations. Plus, Moishes will be co-hosting fundraising dinners with Joe Beef and other landmark restos in the fall.

The wait staff is now beginning to file in, and a more colourful cast of characters you won’t find: Frank Bastone, 67, has been slinging steaks for 48 years: “This place is an institution, and I guess I’m a prisoner here.”

Peter Cripouris, 67, started 46 years ago: “The only job I’ve had since coming to Canada from Greece, and by now I think I’ll stay permanently.”

Though his fellow waiters have their doubts, Tony Porco, 60, a 34-year vet, claims he had no idea he was serving Julia Roberts despite spending over two hours doting over her: “She didn’t behave like a star — she was low-profile, so I didn’t recognize her.”

Ying Lore, 62, is a relative young pub, having started just 25 years ago, but he paid dues at the fabled Ruby Foo’s 13 years prior to Moishes: “I used to be finished here at 9, but now with the second weekend sitting, I don’t get back home until late and my wife thinks I’m having an affair.”

Larry Lighter, 63, Lenny’s brother and co-owner, has put in 49 years on the job, more than anyone else there. He still recalls breaking bread with Don Rickles a few decades back: “Rickles has a serious side, but he still couldn’t resist comparing my nose to the front end of a vintage Buick.” No complimentary Shirley Temple for him.

But even Rickles must take a back seat to Marlon Brando. “He was still alive, too, when he came,” Lenny cracks. “Customers were going over, asking for autographs, and he was basically telling them to f… off. Then this little girl approached him. I feared the worst. But he drew her a little picture, signed it and gave it to her. That’s the beauty of this business. We never know who may drop in. But every day is an adventure.”

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